The present invention relates to an operating status monitoring program that gives a computer a function to monitor operating status of a program that is executed on a computer. The present invention further relates to an operating status monitoring method and an operating status monitoring device that are implemented by a computer on which such a program is running.
Many private enterprises and self-governing bodies use computers for their businesses. The number of business programs increases with the passage of time because new programs are added in response to changes of their businesses and organizations, and there is risk to delete the existing programs. However, only a part of the programs actually operates in some cases even if the number of the programs increases. In such a case, a maintenance fee is paid to the programs that are not actually used and the unnecessary programs consume the capacity of a storage device vainly.
Therefore, the method that monitors operating status of programs in a system to list no-operating programs as deletion targets has been suggested. For example, JP2004-259036A discloses an operating status monitoring device that includes a monitoring means that collects information about processes executed by an operating system using a program interface and monitors the execution status of the processes, and a creating means that summarizes the execution status of the processes about application software included in the information collected by the monitoring means to create an operating track record of the application software.
However, since the conventional device disclosed in JP2004-259036A monitors the operating status on a process-by-process basis or a program-by-program basis, a program that consists of a small necessary part and a large unnecessary part remains as-is. That is, such a program is not a target to be deleted. In order to use a storage device effectively and to increase an execution speed of a program, the operating status monitoring method on a process-by-process basis or a program-by-program basis is insufficient. An operating status monitoring method on a step-by-step basis of a source program is required.
When a program must be monitored on a step-by-step basis, a programmer analyzed a source program on paper, a tracing program was embedded in the operating system to check an executed step, or a CPU emulator was used to check a running address preciously. However, since the conventional methods required very difficult operations in technique, they were difficult to be executed by a user who is not an advanced specialist of a computer.